Onion Festival (Madonna di San Giovanni Fair)

An ancient fair at the foot of Monte Maggiore

The Onion Festival in Pietramelara, which locals still call by its traditional name, the Madonna di San Giovanni Fair, is one of the most deeply rooted events in the Alto Casertano area. It takes place at the end of July in the municipality of Pietramelara, in the province of Caserta, Campania. It traditionally marks the start of the summer season for the town, which stretches out at the foot of Monte Maggiore between the Vairano plain and the Matese mountains.

A tradition documented in the archives

The historical existence of the onion fair and its deep connection to the religious celebration of the Madonna di San Giovanni are confirmed by documents preserved in the parish archives of Sant'Agostino church and the municipal archives. This is no recent invention, but the revival of a collective ritual that has accompanied Pietramelara for centuries.

Near the fairgrounds, there once stood an ancient church dedicated to San Giovanni, the saint of the Knights of Malta, which included a hospital for travelers. The building was damaged in the 1980 earthquake and subsequently rebuilt; devotion to the Madonna di San Giovanni has been passed down through the years, notably thanks to the Sanniti family.

From livestock market to modern festival

In its ancient form, the fair was much more than a showcase for onions. It was primarily a hub for:

• trading large livestock, particularly horses and cattle;
• buying and selling pigs, sheep, and goats;
• saddlers' stalls, offering bridles, saddles, and harnesses;
• exchanging garden produce, with the onion as the absolute star.

With the modernization of agriculture, this mercantile character has gradually faded, but the date has remained fixed: an unmissable stop in the Pietramelara summer that the community refuses to give up.

The fair and the return of emigrants

For decades, the fair served a specific social function. Pietramelara emigrants, particularly those who moved to Switzerland, would time their return home to coincide with these festivities, only departing again after the feast of San Rocco on August 20th. Thus, the Madonna di San Giovanni Fair marked the beginning of the weeks when the town would come alive again, filled with reunited families, visits to relatives, and evenings in the square.

The revival by the "C'era una volta" association

The event was strongly championed and successfully relaunched by the "C'era una volta" association, which set itself the goal of honoring past traditions and renewing them for new generations so that the customs and knowledge of a distant time are not lost. The municipal administration included the festival in the summer events calendar, entrusting its coordination to administrators Maria Russo, Maria Teresa Senese, Giovanni Zarone, and Nicoletta Lombardo.

What the festival is like

The heart of the fair is the Via San Giovanni area, where stalls are lined up and the stage is set for the final musical evening. In the revival edition, the free concert featured Collage, a group very popular between the late seventies and the eighties. Around the food stands, the local onion remains the core ingredient, served in simple, traditional Caserta-style home cooking.

Admission is free: you only pay for what you consume at the stands or purchase at the stalls, following the classic formula of Campanian village festivals.

A long summer in Pietramelara

The Onion Festival opens the season, but it is not the only event: at the end of August, the baton passes to the Sagra al Borgo, organized by the Pro Loco Pietramelara APS, which reached its 52nd edition in 2026. Meanwhile, the old town and the tower remain the backdrop for most of the municipality's summer events. For those visiting the Alto Casertano, the late-July fair is the best opportunity to see Pietramelara in its most authentic version, where the town still recognizes itself in its peasant history.